Since When Were We in Books?: The Lightning Thief
by Sveta Jackson
Summary: Percy and friends and Magnus and friends read the books with the gods.
1. Introductions and Why are We Here?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper of anyone else, ok?**

 **Also, Apollo is there but not immortal.**

* * *

Piper's POV:

I was on my bunk trying to ignore Drew, who was trying to get me to start the Aphrodite rite of passage again, but she wasn't succeeding. Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light and suddenly, I found myself on Mount Olympus with 17 books in my hands. Percy, Leo, Calypso, Annabeth, Jason, Frank, Nico, Thalia, the Stolls, Hazel, Reyna, Clarisse, and Chris. On the opposite side of the room, there was a long-haired blond guy, a girl with a green headscarf, a girl with green hair and dressed in green and pink, a guy dressed in black with a red scarf around his neck, and a short guy with fashion Aphrodite would be proud of.

The Olympians were on their thrones and there were other people I didn't recognize. A guy dressed in jeans, a flannel shirt, and hiking boots, a guy dressed in a Red Sox jersey, jeans and sneakers and a messed up face, a woman with cats and knock out gorgeous, a guy with perfect looking feet, and a guy with red hair and a red face and smelling disgusting.

"You're supposed to be in chains!" said the girl with the green headscarf to the guy wearing the Sox jersey.

"Piper! said Annabeth. "What are we doing here?"

"I would like to know that too and who are those people?" said Reyna.

"I have 17 books, maybe they will tell us something," said Piper.

"First, the new people should introduce themselves and vice versa", said Jason.

"Ok", said the blond kid. "My name is Magnus Chase and I am the son of the Norse god Frey".

Just then a sword appeared in Magnus's hand and said, "Hi, I'm Sumarbrander or to my friends the one and only Jack."

"Shut up, Jack," grumbled Magnus. "I thought you were supposed to be an inanimate object."

"Wait, your sword talks?" asked Percy.

"Unfortunately," said the girl with green hair.

"Hey!" cried Jack.

"Moving on, said the girl with the headscarf with a glare at Jack and Magnus. "I'm Samirah or Sam Al-Abbas and I am the daughter of the Norse god Loki."

"I'm Alex Fierro and I am also the daughter of Loki," said the girl with green hair.

"I'm Blitzen and I'm the son of the Norse goddess Freya," said the short guy.

The guy dressed in black signed 'I'm Hearthstone and I am deaf and a rune magician.'(A/N I made Piper, Percy, Jason and Annabeth and all the gods except Thor understand ASL.)

"What is he doing?" asked Leo.

"He's deaf and he's doing ASL. He said that his name is Hearthstone and he does rune magic", explained Jason.

"Now with you guys," said Percy, indicating the remaining people.

"I'll go," said the guy wearing flannel. "I'm Frey, god of summer, fertility, rain, beauty, music, healing, the sun, and a lot of other things and son of Njord and twin to Freya and a Vanir god."

"I'm Loki, the god of mischief and trouble and of evil and an Aesir god," said the guy with the Sox jersey.

"I'm Freya, goddess of love and beauty (Ah, I thought so, I thought). I am the daughter of Njord and the twin of Frey and a Vanir goddess," said the beautiful lady.

"I'm Njord, god of ships, sailors, fishermen and anything sea related. I am also the father of Frey and Freya," said the guy with perfect feet.

"I'm Thor (I thought he was blond, I thought.), god of thunder," said the guy with red hair with a loud fart.

"Ok," said Percy. "Now for us, I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."

"I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena," said Annabeth.

"I'm Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite," I said.

"I'm Jason Grace, son of Jupiter," said Jason.

"I'm Frank Zhong, son of Mars, shapeshifter, Praetor of New Rome," said Frank.

"I'm Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto," said Hazel.

"I'm Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus," said Leo.

"I'm Calypso, formerly an immortal, imprisoned on Ogygia," said Calypso. Here she gave the gods a look and they had the grace to look ashamed of themselves.

"I'm Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades," said Nico.

"I'm Reyna Ramirez-Arellano, daughter of Bellona, Also, Praetor of New Rome," said Reyna.

"I'm Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, Lieutenant of Artemis," said Thalia.

"I'm Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares," said Clarisse.

"We're Connor and Travis Stoll, and we're the sons of Hermes," said Connor and Travis together.

"I'm Chris Rodriguez, also a son of Hermes," said Chris.

"Ok," said Poseidon. We'll introduce ourselves now. I'm Poseidon, king of the sea and god of the sea."

"I'm Zeus, king of the gods, and the god of the sky," said Zeus.

"I'm Hades, god of the dead," said Hades.

"I'm Hera, queen of the gods, and the goddess of marriage," said Hera.

"I'm Athena, goddess of wisdom and warfare," said Athena.

"I'm Artemis, goddess of the hunt and moon," said Artemis.

"I'm Ares, god of war," said Ares.

"Dionysus? Dionysus? Dionysus! Wake up," exclaimed Hermes.

Dionysus jerked awake and groaned.

"Hermes! I was sleeping," he said, trying to be as pathetic as possible.

"Just introduce yourself," said Zeus sternly.

"Fine, I'm Dionysus, god of wine, blah, blah, blah, ok. There happy, Father?" said Dionysus.

"I'm Hermes, god of travelers, thieves, and messengers," said Hermes.

"We are George and Martha, Hermes's snakes," said Martha.

"Do you have any rats, I'm hungry," hissed George.

"You're always hungry," complained Martha.

"I'm Demeter, goddess of grain and agriculture, and you should eat more cereal," said Demeter.

"ENOUGH WITH THE CEREAL, WOMAN!" yelled Hades.

"Ok, Uncle Hades, calm down,: said Hephaestus. "I'm Hephaestus, god of fire and blacksmiths."

"I'm Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty," said Aphrodite.

"I'm Hestia, goddess of the hearth and of home," said Hestia.

"Apollo, you're last," said Artemis.

"I'm Apollo", said Apollo glumly.

"Just Apollo?" asked his sister. "No god of music or archery or anything?"

"No," he replied sadly. "Because I'm not those things anymore." It hurt him inside to see all his relatives after Zeus cast him out of Mount Olympus.

"Ok, I said. Now that we have introduced ourselves and we know who everyone is, let's see what these books say". On the front cover of the first book was this message:

" _Dear Gods and Demigods,"_ I read aloud

" _We have called you together to read the lives of either your our lives, your fellow demigods' lives, or your children's lives. You can take as many breaks and rests as you like. However, you can not leave Mount Olympus. Time is paused until you finish. Sleeping arrangements are based on your parentage (Demigods) or as your own room (Gods). You will read the following: Percy Jackson and Olympians: Book 1: The Lightning Thief, Book 2: The Sea of Monsters, Book 3: The Titan's Curse, Book 4: The Battle of the Labyrinth, and Book 5: The Last Olympian. Heroes of Olympus: Book 1: The Lost Hero, Book 2: The Son of Neptune, Book 3: The Mark of Athena, Book 4: The House of Hades, and Book 5: The Blood of Olympus. Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, and Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes. The Trials of Apollo (Here Apollo groaned) and No, Apollo, these books are not to humiliate you: Book 1: The Hidden Oracle, and Book 2: The Dark Prophecy. And lastly, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: Book 1: The Sword of Summer, Book 2: The Hammer of Thor, and finally Book 3: The Ship of the Dead._

 _Sincerely,_

 _The Fates and The Norns"_

Everyone stared at each other open-mouthed.

"Should we start?" asked Nico after a long silence.

"Sure, this is going to take a while," said Artemis. Here are some beanbags chairs to sit on."

Everyone sat on a chair. Jason and me, then Annabeth and Percy, and Frank and Hazel, Nico and Thalia, The Stolls, Clarisse and Chris and then Reyna and surprisingly Apollo.

"Don't you want to be with the other gods?" asked Thalia.

"I don't deserve it," Apollo responses.

On the other side, Magnus and Alex, Sam, Blitz, and Hearthstone. And then the Norse gods next to them. The Olympians except Apollo were on their thrones.

"I'll read first. Book 1: The Lightning Thief…" said Artemis.

* * *

 ** **What do you think? If I have some grammar issues please tell me. And please review! Also, give me any constructive criticism. Bye for now. Please review!****

 **-Sveta**


	2. Vaporizing Math Teachers

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson characters or Magnus Chase characters. Or the Gods.**

 **I decided to make Apollo sad and brooding and the demigods and gods are trying to get used to this new Apollo**

* * *

Artemis's POV

I sat down and began reading,

" **Chapter 1: I Accidently Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher**."

"How do you do that, Perce?" asked Nico.

"You'll find out," replied Percy.

 **Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"No one does," said Chris. All the demigods nodded vigorously.

"No one," repeated Sam sadly.

 **If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is**

Gasps from all the Greek demigods.

"Percy giving advice? Wow! I thought he wasn't capable," exclaimed Thalia.

 **:close this book right now.**

Hermes got up and grabbed the book out of my hands and closed it.

"Hey!" I cried.

"It said to close it," he said smirking.

"Give it back, Hermes," surprisingly Apollo said this.

He did so with a pout, I gave Apollo a questioning look. He purposely avoided my gaze.

 **Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life. Being a half-blood is dangerous.**

All demigods nodded fervently.

All the gods were asking in their minds, was being half-blood really that bad?

Poseidon gave Percy a questioning look.

 **It's scary.**

Cue the nods.

 **Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"Yep," said Magnus.

' _Yet you resurrect every time'_ , signed Hearth.

"Your point?" asked Magnus.

 **If you're a normal**

"Normal, HA! I don't even know that term anymore," said Jason.

 **kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great.**

 **Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

 **But if you recognize yourself in these pages if you feel something stirring inside stop reading immediately.**

 **You might be one of us.**

"Which is not good," said Clarisse

 **And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

"Who?" asked Annabeth sarcastically.

 **Don't say I didn't warn you. My name is Percy Jackson.**

"Great, it's in my point of view," groaned Percy.

"Oh, son, stop being so dramatic," said Poseidon with a grin.

 **I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

 **Am I a troubled kid?**

Yes," cried everyone.

 **Yeah.**

"See! You said yourself. This is excellent blackmail material," said Thalia.

 **You could say that. I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan twenty eight mental case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus,**

"What other color would be? Bright Purple?" asked Hermes.

"Please, stop," moaned Apollo.

"What is with you? You're not being any fun," whined Hermes.

"Maybe because I'm mortal now," snapped Apollo.

 **heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Cool," said Annabeth jumping up on her seat excitedly.

 **I know it sounds like torture.**

"No! It doesn't," said Athena a little hurt.

"Yes! It does," groaned Poseidon.

"Oh shut up, Fish Face."

"No, you."

"No, you."

"Both of you shut it," groaned Apollo.

Both gods stared at him.

"What?" he asked.

 **Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes. Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.**

"I wonder who that is?" I interrupted myself.

"I have an idea who it is," said Athena.

"Of course you do, Bird Brain," grumbled Poseidon.

"Shut up, Kelp Head," said Athena.

 **You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class.**

 **He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

Annabeth shook her head, "Percy, you shouldn't be sleeping in class."

"Oh, well," said Percy.

 **I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

"With Percy? Yeah right," said Frank.

"Trouble is Percy's middle name," said Hermes.

 **Boy, was I wrong.**

"Of course," groaned Poseidon. And he went so pale, everyone stared at him worried.

"You ok?" asked Hades, concerned for his brother.

 **See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth grade school, when we took a behind the scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

Everyone was howling with laughter. Hermes and his sons were rolling around on the floor.

"Percy, tell us more," exclaimed Leo with tears in his eyes.

 **This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"Yeah, right, said Connor

 **All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter and ketchup sandwich.**

"Eww!" cried Aphrodite.

That's disgusting, I was extremely grossed out.

 **Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin.**

"I don't think Grover would like that description," said Travis.

"Probably not," said Annabeth

 **On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you.**

"You better not be mean to disabled people," growled Hephaestus with a glare.

Percy gulped and said, "Of course not, Lord Hephaestus."

 **You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Silly satyr," said Dionysus. "You're going to give him an idea of who you really are."

Everyone was surprised that Dionysus was actually paying attention.

"What?" he asked.

 **Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair,**

"Eww!" Aphrodite said again shuddering.

 **and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation.**

"You had the chance of not getting expelled?" asked Frey. "and you still did?"

"Hey, it wasn't my fault, Lord Frey," said Percy.

 **The headmaster had threatened me with death**

"WHAT!" shouted Poseidon.

 **by in-school suspension**

Hermes and his sons whimpered and said, "That's the worst."

 **if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"But that's BORING!" whined Clarisse and Ares together.

 **"I'm going to kill her, " I mumbled.**

 ****"Do it, Do it, Do it!" chanted Ares.

"Shut Up!" yelled Hera.

 **Grover tried to calm me down.**

" _Tried_ ," said Nico.

 **"It's okay. I like peanut butter." He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

"In your hair?" asked Alex, forgetting that Grover was not there.

"He's not here," pointed out Connor.

 **"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"Aww, I would've kill her if it was me," said Ares.

"There will be no killing of anyone, understood?" said Hera.

"But, MOMMY!" whined Ares.

Everyone burst into laughter seeing the expression on Ares's face.

 **"You're already on probation, " he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens. "**

"Let me guess, not Grover, not Nancy," said Freya. "But our dear Percy."

"Umm…" Percy stuttered. "Thanks, Lady Freya."

 **Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.**

"Me too, this book has no action," complained Ares.

 **In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

Poseidon gulped and looked at Percy nervously. "You're kidding I hope," he said with a note of concern.

 **Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

"I believe that's Chiron", said Athena.

"Way to go and spoil it, Athena," said Poseidon.

"Shut up, Seaweed Head," said Athena without missing a beat.

 **He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

"Cool," said Sam, excited. She and Annabeth shared a look and smiled.

 **It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Longer," said Apollo seriously without a trace of a smile.

"So, it did interest you," said Annabeth.

"Yeah, I guess it did," said Percy.

 **He gathered us around a thirteen foot tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

 ****"I bet that's a monster," said Reyna.

 **Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old.**

 **She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker.**

 **She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"Speaking of Harlies," said Hermes to Ares. "Why did you leave yours outside my room?"

"Because I felt like it," said Ares.

 **From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.**

"Nah," said Jason. "That's Nico."

"Watch yourself, Pikachu," replied Nico.

 **She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey, " real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"Could you go a month without a detention?" asked Piper.

"No, I couldn't I'd always messed up," said Percy with sigh.

 **One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight,**

Hermes and his sons shivered. "That's a really bad punishment," said Chris.

 **I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Silly satyr," said Dionysus flipping through a wine magazine longley.

 **Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

 **Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and**

 **I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

 **It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"Of course it did," I said. "Because that's your luck, Percy."

 **The whole group laughed.**

 **Mr. Brunner stopped his story. "Mr. Jackson, " he said, "did you have a comment?"**

 **My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

"At least he tried to be polite", said Hazel.

"Percy, polite? HA! That's like saying Poseidon loves being in airplanes," said Thalia.

 **Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

 **I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it.**

All the demigods gasp. "Percy knowing something about mythology, it's a calamity," exclaimed Frank.

 **"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

All the elder gods groaned. "Why that picture?" groaned Hades. "Of all the pictures in Greek Mythology, that one?"

"Actually, I think Chiron just pointed to a picture randomly," said Percy.

"But still…" said Zeus.

Everyone turned to him.

"Why are you complaining, you were never eaten," griped Poseidon.

"No, but I grew up without my brothers and sisters," said Zeus with a touch of sadness.

"AWW!" cried Piper and Aphrodite together.

"Pipes, said Jason. Your Aphrodite side is showing."

"Well, I am her daughter," said Piper pointely.

 **"Yes, " Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ... "**

Chiron's at it again, said Clarisse. Always trying to get us to understand Greek Mythology.

 **"Well... " I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

"GOD!" cried all the gods except Apollo, Poseidon, and Hestia.

"I'm sure that Chiron will correct him," said Apollo.

I kept looking his throne to find him with the demigods. My heart was filled sadness as I longed for Apollo to be sitting on the throne next to me, immortal and annoying me. But Zeus had given him a punishment.

 **"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

 **"Titan, " I corrected myself. "And ... He didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"**

"Which we are grateful, of course," said Hestia.

 **"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"I don't think it's _that_ disgusting," said Hermes.

 **"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans, " I continued, "and the gods won. "**

"Summing up one of our biggest wars into a few sentences?" said Athena amazed. "Wow. You have a great gift, Son of Poseidon."

 **Some snickers from the group.**

 **Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids."**

It's important when you are a demigod, said Reyna. It can you survive.

 **"And why, Mr. Jackson, " Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted," said Hermes.

 **"Busted, " Grover muttered.**

Everyone looked strangely at Hermes.

 **"Shut up, " Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

 **At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

Or horse ears, said Connor.

 **I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir. "**

Typically Percy answer, said Nico.

Hey! shouted Percy indignantly.

 **"I see. " Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine,**

"Nectar, actually," said Annabeth. "Wine hadn't been invented yet."

"Alright, Wise Girl," said Percy. "No need to show off."

 **which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"That's a happy note?" asked Frey.

 **The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"Aren't all men doofuses?" I asked.

Athena nodded. Aphrodite and Freya shook their heads vigorously.

 **Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson. "**

' _Of course,'_ signed Hearth.

 **I knew that was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

" **Percy, I would like to tell you that the Greek gods exist," said Leo mimicking Chiron's deep voice.**

 **Everyone snorted with laughter.**

 **Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go, intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"Because they have," said Apollo.

 **"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

 **"About the Titans?"**

 **"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

 **"Oh."**

"Typical Percy answer," said Thalia.

Percy pouted.

 **"What you learn from me, " he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

 **I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

"It's for your own good," said Blitz.

 **I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days,**

 **when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!"**

 **and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

"I don't think even Athena could do that," said Aphrodite.

"GRR," said Athena.

I started to laugh uncontrollably. "Athena, are you turning into a beast?"

 **But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder**

Everyone who had these nodded in sympathy.

 **and I had never made above a C- in my life.**

Athena tsked disapprovingly.

 **No he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

Most demigods sighed sadly. Thinking how easier life would be if they didn't have ADHD and dyslexia.

 **I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"He probably was," said Demeter.

"He was, said Hades. 'She was my daughter, she was killed by a lightning bolt."

Everyone glared at Zeus. And he tried to defend himself by saying: "She was on my turf."

"Even so, brother," said Poseidon.

 **He told me to go outside and eat my lunch. The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

 **Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city.**

 **I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas.**

 **We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes.**

 **I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

Everyone glanced at Poseidon and Zeus. But said nothing, on account of the look on Zeus's face, the one said "If you say anything, I will strike you with a lightning bolt."

 **Nobody else seemed to notice.**

'Ignorant mortals,' said Hera disapprovingly.

 **Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse,**

"Not my daughter," said Hermes smugly. "It said ' _tried'_ , my kids could do it without being noticed."

"That's not something to be proud of," said Apollo.

Hermes walked over and hit him pretty hard.

"OW! What was that for!?"

'I was trying to get the old you back. It didn't work."

"That me is gone."

 **and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

"Of course, monsters don't see the stuff," said Annabeth

 **Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others.**

 **We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school-the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

 **"Detention?" Grover asked.**

"I wouldn't be surprised," said Frey.

"Just curious, how many detentions did you get a week?" asked Thor with a humongous fart.

"Depends sometimes 3-4, others times, 7-8."

 **"Nah, " I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean I'm not a genius."**

 **No truer words have ever been spoken, said Reyna with her hand over her heart.**

 **Grover didn't say anything for a while.**

 **Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

Everyone burst into laughter. "Of all the things he could have said," said Alex. "and it's "'Can I have your apple.'"

 **I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

 **I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat.**

 **I hadn't seen her since Christmas.**

 **I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too.**

 **She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again.**

 **I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Wimp," said Ares. "You're a mama's boy."

"So what if I am?" said Percy with defiance.

 **Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp.**

 **He ate celery while he read a paperback novel.**

 **A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"Cool, said Leo. I want one!"

"I made that, son," said Hephaestus.

 **I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends.**

 **I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

 **"Oops. " She grinned at me with her crooked teeth.**

 **Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

 **I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper. "**

"How many times did you go to the counselor's," asked Piper.

"Seven times a week if lucky. Five times a day if unlucky."

 **But I was so mad my mind went blank.**

 **A wave roared in my ears.**

 **I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

"Yeah, sure," said Frank.

 **Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

"Of course, the monster come," said Hazel.

 **Some of the kids were whispering:**

 **"Did you see-"**

 **"-the water-"**

 **"-like it grabbed her-"**

Zeus groaned, "At that age and he that powerful."

"Don't worry, I won't use him to overthrow you."

 **I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

"Aren't you always in trouble?" asked Magnus.

'Yeah," said Percy unhappily. "I can't seem to help myself."

 **As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her**

 **a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc.**

 **Mrs. Dodds turned on me.**

"Of course, worry about Nancy," I grumbled.

 **There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester.**

 **"Now, honey-"**

"She was probably waiting to see if you were a demigod," said Thalia.

 **"I know, " I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

Hermes gasped. "Never guess your punishment."

 **That wasn't the right thing to say.**

' _No kidding,'_ signed Hearthstone.

 **"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

 **"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her. "**

"Poor little brave satyr," said Dionysus.

 **I stared at him, stunned.**

 **I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

 **She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

 **"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood, " she said.**

 **"But-"**

 **"You will stay here. "**

 **Grover looked at me desperately.**

 **"It's okay, man, " I told him. "Thanks for trying. "**

 **"Honey, " Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now. "**

"Don't go," pleaded Poseidon almost crying.

 **Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

"Can I kill her?" asked Sam.

 **I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

 **Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there.**

 **She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

 **How'd she get there so fast?**

"She's a monster, Seaweed Brain."

 **I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it.**

 **The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

 **I wasn't so sure.**

"I doubt it," said Loki.

 **I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

 **Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover.**

 **He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"Chiron, said Freya. I thought you suppose to protect him."

 **I looked back up.**

 **Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again.**

 **She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

 **Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

 **But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

 **I followed her deeper into the museum.**

 **When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

 **How fitting, said Demeter.**

 **Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"How convenient," said Loki.

"Shut up," snapped Samirah.

"Why dear?" asked Loki with his most charming smile.

 **Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods.**

 **She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

 **Even without the noise, I would've been nervous.**

 **It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds.**

 **Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it…**

 **"You've been giving us problems, honey, " she said.**

 **I did the safe thing.**

"Percy doing the safe thing? It's a miracle," said Thalia, trying to lighten the mood.

 **I said, "Yes, ma'am. "**

 **She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

"I'm guessing you had no idea what she talking about," said Thor.

"No, Lord Thor," said Percy.

"Call me Thor," said Thor.

 **The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

"That's because she is evil," said Piper.

 **She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"HA!" said Jason. "She's a monster, not a teacher."

 **I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am. "**

 **Thunder shook the building.**

Everyone glanced at Zeus.

 **"We are not fools, Percy Jackson, " Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain. "**

 **I didn't know what she was talking about.**

"I bet you didn't," said Freya.

 **All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

"Awesome," said the Stoll brothers. "Way to go, Percy!"

 **Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet**

"That's plagerism," said Athena.

 **without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade.**

 **Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

 **How would it be worse? asked Athena.**

"It would that me months to read," said Percy.

 **"Well?" she demanded.**

 **"Ma'am, I don't…"**

 **"Your time is up, " she hissed.**

 **Then the weirdest thing happened.**

 **Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals.**

 **Her fingers stretched, turning into talons.**

 **Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human.**

 **She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"What in Heimdall's name is that?" asked Alex.

"A Kindly One," said Piper.

"Who's Heimdall?" asked Jason.

"Guardian of the rainbow bridge connecting the human world and the home of the gods," said Magnus.

 **Then things got even stranger.**

 **Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

 **"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

 **With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore.**

 **It was a sword Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"Riptide," said Poseidon, relief in his voice.

"Who is a total hottie," said Jack.

 **Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

 **My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Wimp."

 **She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

 **And she flew straight at me.**

 **Absolute terror ran through my body.**

 **I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"How does that come naturally?" asked Jack.

 **The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water.**

 **Hisss! Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

 **I was alone.**

 **There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. My hands were still trembling.**

"Wimp. You gotta man up."

 **My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"We did that to Will Solace once," said Travis. "It was a very funny reaction."

 **Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"Nope."

 **I went back outside. It had started to rain.**

 **Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends.**

 **When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who!?"

 **I said, "Who?"**

 **"Our teacher. Duh!"**

 **I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

 **She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

 **He said, "Who?"**

 **But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Grover can a pretty bad actor."

 **"Not funny, man, " I told him. "This is serious."**

 **Thunder boomed overhead.**

 **I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

 **I went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

 **I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

 **"Sir, " I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

 **He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

 **"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

 **He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling alright?"**

"Chiron a better actor," said Frey.

"I'll read next," said Chris.

 **But before he could, there was a bright flash….**

* * *

 **That's done. I try and update more quickly this time. Please Review! I will send out a poll to guess who or what appears.**

 **-Sveta**


	3. Death Socks

**Hello, people, I want to thank all the people who reviewed. It means a lot to me. The answer to the poll question is Kanes and the Egyptian Gods! Thanks again for the positive reviews. I don't own anything!**

* * *

Suddenly Carter, Sadie, Zia, Horus, and Isis were standing there holding 3 more books.

"More books?" complained Leo.

"Hi, guys," said Percy. Everyone this is Carter and Sadie Kane and their friends, I guess.

"Hello, everyone," said Sadie in a slight British accent. "There's three books here with a note. I'll read it."

 _Hello, gods and demigods, elf, and dwarf,_

 _This is Sadie, Carter, Zia, Horus, and Isis. They have to do with Egyptian mythology. Horus and Isis are gods. The books are_ _ **The Red Pyramid, The Throne of Fire,**_ _and_ _ **The Serpent's Shadow.**_ _They will be read after Percy's books. Oh, we forgot to tell Samirah, no matter how annoyed you get at your father, you know that he is not here fully._

 _The Fates and The Norns_

Everyone stared at the note.

"Ok," said Calypso after a while. "Shall we continue reading?"

"We're reading about Percy right now," said Jason

"Go on, Chris, said Clarisse.

" **Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death"**

"Uh oh, said Annabeth. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Yep," said Percy with a look of queasiness.

 **I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

"You're always weird, punk."

 **This twenty four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle.**

"It wasn't a hallucination, Perce," said Thalia.

 **For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me.**

"Yes, Percy, because people do that," said Sam.

 **The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr - a perky blonde woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

 **Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

 **It got so I almost believed them Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

 **Almost.**

"Let me guess: Grover," groaned Piper

 **But Grover couldn't fool me.**

 **When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist.**

 **But I knew he was lying.**

 **Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

 **I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

Everyone looked sadly at him.

 **The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood.**

"It is the son of the sea god thing"

 **One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room.**

Everyone glanced at Zeus.

 **A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy.**

Everyone glanced at Poseidon.

 **One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year. I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time.**

"Just like his father."

 **My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

Athena frowned.

 **I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends.**

"Perseus, I don't want to hear about you fighting," said Poseidon.

Percy gulped and managed out a "Yes Father."

 **I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

 **Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped.**

 **I called him an old sot.**

 **I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"It means stupid person," said Annabeth.

 **The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

 **Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

"How many schools did you go through?" asked Frey.

"Eight,"

 **I was homesick.**

"Mama's boy."

 **I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

"Gabe?"

"Yeah," sighed Percy.

 **And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange.**

Everyone looked at him as he reminisced about it.

 **I worried how he'd survive next year without me. I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr.**

 **Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

"You can do well when you try," said Annabeth.

 **As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

"Why are dating him?" asked Athena.

 **I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me.**

"It is," said Sadie.

 **I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him. The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

"WHAT!?" shrieked Athena. "You should never treat a book as such."

 **Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards.**

"I hate dyslexia," said the room at large.

 **There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydectes and Polydeuces.**

"Easy," said Annabeth. "One you meet when you are living and the other is when you die."

"Not everyone is as smart as you, Wise Girl,"

Annabeth smiled at her boyfriend.

 **And conjugating those Latin verbs?**

 ****"Those are hard," said Carter.

 **Forget it. I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

 **I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes.**

 **I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

 **I took a deep breath.**

 **I picked up the mythology book. I'd never asked a teacher for help before.**

"That explains a lot," said Athena.

 **Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried. I walked downstairs to the faculty offices.**

 **Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

 **I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question.**

 **A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... worried about Percy, sir."**

 **I froze. I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult. I inched closer.**

 **"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"**

 **"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said.**

 **"We need the boy to mature more."**

"That's not possible," said Clarisse.

 **"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline- "**

"What's that?" asked Zia.

"You'll find out," said Annabeth smiling at her.

 **Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

" **Too late, he heard you," said Isis.**

 **"Sir, he saw her... ."**

 **"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

"Don't be so sure," said Thalia.

 **"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

"You didn't fail the first time," said Thalia softly.

"Are you quite sure, daughter?" asked Zeus.

"Yes, _Father_ ,"

 **"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

"Much tact, Chiron," winced Magnus.

 **The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"NO!" cried Hermes. "Never give away your position."

"Sorry, Hermes"

 **Mr. Brunner went silent. My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

 **A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"Chiron! What in Hades are you doing?" exclaimed Artemis.

 **I opened the nearest door and slipped inside. A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door.**

 **A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on. A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

 **Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

 **"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

 **"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

 **"Don't remind me." The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office. I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

 **Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm. Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

 **"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?" I didn't answer.**

 **"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

"He just acts normally," laughed Hermes.

 **"Just... tired." I turned so he couldn't read my expression,**

"That won't work, Percy. Satyrs can read your emotions," said Jason.

 **and started getting ready for bed. I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

 **But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back.**

 **They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"You are." said Apollo.

 **The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"Three Hours!" cried Leo.

"Not even Owl Face could do that."

"Shut up, Fish Head."

 **my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

 **For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

 **"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best." His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me.**

"Chiron!" groaned Aphrodite.

 **Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

 **I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

 **"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

 **My eyes stung. Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out. "Right," I said, trembling.**

 **"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"**

 **"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

 **"Percy-" But I was already gone. On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase. The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans.**

 **One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland.**

"That would fun," said Horus.

 **Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities.**

 **I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"You have a greek god for dad," grumbled Poseidon.

 **They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

 **What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

"That's sad," said Frank.

 **"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

"Not really," said Reyna.

 **They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed. The only person I dreaded saying goodbye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to.**

 **He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"He's stalking you," said Nico.

 **During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers.**

 **It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

"Monsters."

 **Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

"Don't say anything," said Sadie.

 **I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"Oh, that should scare him," said Annabeth.

 **Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"**

 **I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam. Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

 **"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?"**

 **He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..."**

 **"Grover-"**

 **"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

 **"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"Yes, he is," said Hermes.

 **His ears turned pink. From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer. The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes,**

"Why Mr. D," cried Percy.

 **but I finally made out something like: Grover Underwood Keeper Half-Blood Hill Long Island, New York (800) 009-0009 "What's Half-"**

"An amazing place," said Nico.

 **"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address." My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"Aww," cried Freya.

 **"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

 **He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me."**

 **"Why would I need you?"**

"That harsh, Percy," said Apollo.

 **It came out harsher than I meant it to. Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you." I stared at him. All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him.**

 **I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

 **"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

"Oh, Kronos and Gaea," said Reyna seriously.

 **There was a huge grinding noise under our feet.**

 **Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

 **After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off.**

"Great." said Sam.

 **Grover and I filed outside with everybody else. We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there.**

 **On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars.**

 **On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

 **The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice.**

 **There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen. I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks.**

"Is that what I think it is?" cried Poseidon.

 **The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

 **All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandanas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

 **The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me. I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

 **"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"**

 **"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

 **"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Not funny, son," said Poseidon.

 **"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

 **The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath. "We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on." "What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"That is a exaggeration, Percy," said Alex.

 **"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

"Go!" sobbed Poseidon.

 **Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me.**

 **The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

"NO!" yelled Poseidon.

 **Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for - Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

"Stop joking around," said Hazel.

 **At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

"Now it works," sighed Apollo.

 **The passengers cheered. "Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

 **Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

"Everyone does after meeting the Fates," said Nico.

 **Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering. "Grover?"**

 **"Yeah?"**

 **"What are you not telling me?"**

 **He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

 **"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?" His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds.**

"They are," said Frank.

 **He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

 **"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn." He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.**

"He's very observant," said Zeus.

 **He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

 **"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal. "This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time." "What last time?" "Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

"Stop blaming yourself, Grover," said Thalia.

 **"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

 **"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me." This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

 **"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked. No answer. "Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

 **He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

" **There the chapter done,"**

* * *

 **There. Sorry for not updating it sooner. I've been busy with school and extracurricular stuff.**


	4. Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants

**DON'T READ THIS A/N IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BURNING MAZE!**

 **Wow, 31 reviews 😍😍😍. Hi, I'm back. Sorry, I'm late. I don't own anything. Also, I realized that I was in third POV when I was trying to do first. Sorry. Also, I realized that with** _ **The Burning Maze**_ **coming out that Piper and Jason are not dating anymore and that Jason is dead. But in my story, they are still dating and Jason not dead yet.**

* * *

 **Clarisse's POV**

"I'll read next," I said.

"You can read?" asked Percy.

"Oh, shut up, Prissy," I said.

 **Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"Of course you did," grumbled Poseidon.

"Why Percy?" groaned Annabeth.

 **I know, I know. It was rude.**

"Yes, it was," agreed Alex.

 **But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"**

"Stop blaming yourself," said Thalia.

 **Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom.**

"He not going to," interrupted Chris.

"Of course, we already established that fact," I told my boyfriend.

"You guys are bullying me," whined Percy.

 **Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown. "East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

"Great," said the Stolls together. "We know where you live, so we can prank you."

"I don't live there anymore, after my first quest, my mom and me moved into a bigger apartment after we got rid of Gabe," said Percy.

 **A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"She amazing," cried all the Greek demigods.

"Yes, she makes amazing food," said Apollo quietly.

 **Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

"What happened?" asked Frey.

 **Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five,**

Everyone glared at Zeus. He said, "what?"

"If you don't know, brother, then you're stupider than I thought."

"Her parent died in a _plane crash_ ," Piper said pointedly.

"Oh, sorry about that."

 **and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program.**

"How did you get such a woman, Fish Face."

"Can you to stop calling each other names?" asked Annabeth.

"Why?" pouted Poseidon.

"Because it's stupid," said Leo boldly.

Everyone gasped and the demigods closed their eyes hoping that they wouldn't hear Leo being smitten by two gods. There were ten seconds of complete silence. Then it was broken by Poseidon laughing.

"You're right Leo. I should stop picking a fight with Athena."

 **Then her uncle got cancer,**

Everyone glared at Apollo. He defended himself by saying: "It wasn't me, it was the nosoi."

 **and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

"That's so sad," cried Nico.

 **The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad. I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile.**

"You visited him when he was a child," accused Zeus.

"Yes, I did," said Poseidon with defiance.

"That's against our ancient laws!" yelled Zeus.

"I hate those ancient laws," yelled all the gods at once.

 **My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

 **See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret.**

"It was," said Poseidon.

 **Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back. Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"That's not the truth but not a lie either," said Hazel.

 **She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own.**

 **She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"Understatement of the year," said Thalia.

"Hey!" cried Percy.

 **Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk.**

The ground started shaking and everyone looked at Poseidon.

"It's not me!"

"Percy!" cried Piper. "Stop it!"

The ground stop shaking but Percy still looked mad.

 **When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

"Eww!" shrieked Aphrodite.

 **Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

 **I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work.**

 **Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies.**

"Did he gamble?" asked Poseidon with disgust.

"Yes."

 **The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet. Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

 **"Where's my mom?"**

 **"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"What!?" screamed Poseidon, his voice an octave higher than usual. "No asking how you've been? Or anything?"

"Nope."

 **That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

"Like father, like son," said Athena.

 **Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp as if that made him handsome or something.  
**

"That is disgusting," said Piper.

 **He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous,**

"Yuck," said Aphrodite.

 **and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds.**

"Why?" asked Travis.

"Because he didn't have any money by then," said Percy.

 **He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"WHAT?!" yelled Poseidon. "Perseus, did he ever hit you?"

Percy didn't answer.

"Perseus Jackson, answer me!" demanded Poseidon.

"Just a few times."

Poseidon growled like an angry dog. He looked ready to kill Gabe.

 **"I don't have any cash," I told him. He raised a greasy eyebrow. Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising since his own smell should've covered up everything else.  
**

"Ew," said Aphrodite. She was deeply disgusted by Gabe.

 **"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight.**

"You're kidding, right?" said Magnus. "He really said that to you."

 **Am I right, Eddie?" Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy.**

"Oh someone who sticks up for you, Perce," said Thalia.

"No, not really."

 **"Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

 **"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

 **Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels.**

"I will never look at pretzels the same again," said Leo.

 **The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

"Eww!" shrieked Aphrodite and Freya together.

"How could someone live like that?" questioned Freya.

"Sister, calm down," said Frey.

 **"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

"Oh, he will be," said Hermes.

 **"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

"What was it like?" asked Jack.

"Bad," said Percy. "C's and D's."

Athena shuddered, "why are you dating him?" She asked Annabeth.

"Because I like the way he makes me feel."

"Keep it PG," I told the two lovers.

 **I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study."**

"Study! My… " Sam started to say. But her father cut her off.

"Samirah, don't you dare finish that sentence."

 **He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer. I dropped my suitcase on the bed.**

"That is disgusting," I said. In my mind, I was wondering why Sally put up with this jerk.

 **Home sweet home.**

"Sarcasm is one of Percy's strong suits," said Hazel.

 **Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

"Hmm," said Athena. She was deep in thought.

"Whatcha thinking?" asked Hermes.

"I was wondering why Sally Jackson would put up with a pig like this. And I have an idea and if I'm right then I was wondering why Poseidon started dating such a smart woman."

 **But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me.**

"Aww, you poor dear," said Freya.

 **I felt like someone something was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.  
**

 **Then I heard my mom's voice.**

 **"Percy?" She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

"Aww, he's a mama's boy," said Ares mocked. He was trying to pick a fight with the young man.

"Dad, shut up," said Frank.

Ares was taken aback.

"What did you say to me, boy!" he cried.

"Dad, have n't noticed Percy is a very dangerous demigod. You don't want him as your enemy."

Percy mouthed 'thank you' to Frank.

 **My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old.**

"You better not," said Hera. "That's rude to your mother."

"Dear," said Zeus cautiously. "He said he didn't think as of her as old."

 **When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

"That pig needs some unkind words," said Demeter.

 **"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

 **Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central.**

"Aww!" cried Aphrodite.

"I don't know her," said Piper shielding her face from her mother.

Jason laughed and held her lovingly.

 **She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

 **We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters.**

"Was that a lot?" I asked.

"No, because I told her everything except about the monsters, but she knew about those anyway because she could see through the mist."

 **She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right? I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

"Wimp."

 **From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally how about some bean dip, huh?" I gritted my teeth.**

Everyone did too.

 **My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

"Or a god, said Apollo with a note of sadness.

 **For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion.**

"How often did you get expelled?" asked Freya.

"That was my sixth time," answered Percy.

 **I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin.**

"Chiron should be proud that you actually got good grades in Latin," I said.

 **And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself.**

 **I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

"Dude you need to get out more," said Travis.

 **Until that trip to the museum ... "What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

 **"No, Mom."**

"Don't ever lie to your mother," cried Hermes.

Everyone stared at him in shock.

"What did you just say," asked Hades.

"I said, don't ever lie to your mother," said Hermes.

"Why would you of all people say that?" said Apollo suspiciously.

"Because you don't lie to your mother, that's rule."

"So," said Hera. "You shouldn't lie to me, yet you still do."

"That's different."

 **I felt bad lying.**

"As you should," I said.

 **I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"She wouldn't think so, son. She's clear-sighted."

 **She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

"She knows you're lying," said Annabeth.

 **"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

 **My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

"Yay!" cheered Annabeth, Percy, & Poseidon

 **"Three nights same cabin."**

 **"When?"**

 **She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

 **I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

That …, Poseidon started to say.

But Hera interrupted him, "Poseidon don't swear!"

"But sister."

"No buts, we have children here."

 **Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

Poseidon growled and pulled out a pad of paper, scribbled something on it and stuffed it in Hades's hand and said: "Make sure that happens to that ugly pig."

 **I wanted to punch him,**

"So do I," everyone said

 **but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

 **"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

 **Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

 **"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"He'd better," said Artemis in a threatening tone of voice.

 **"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step-father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"Ah, bribery, said Hermes. "I like this woman."

 **Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"WHAT?! shrieked Aphrodite, Freya, and Blitzen, so loudly that several people covered their ears in pain.

"Why would she have a budget on clothes," cried Aphrodite.

"That's a crime in itself," said Freya horrorstruck.

Blitz just stared at the book open-mouthed.

 **"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

 **"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

"Yes we will," said Percy with a ghost of a smile. "We'll take it to the moon and leave it there."

 **"We'll be very careful."**

 **Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

 **Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought.**

"Do it, Do it, Do it!" cheered Ares.

 **And make you sing soprano for a week. But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad. Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream.**

"It's for your own good, Seaweed Brain."

 **Why did she care what he thought? "I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now." Gabe's eyes narrowed.**

Hearth signed something. "What did he say?" asked Frank.

"He said 'Yeah right,'" said Alex.

 **His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"There's no way I blessed that thing with brains," said Athena.

 **"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

 **He went back to his game. "Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

 **For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes-the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

 **But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken.**

"You weren't mistaken, son," said Poseidon. I figured that he was dreading all of what Percy was going to go through. I felt a stab of pity for the sea god and his son.

 **She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip. An hour later we were ready to leave.**

"Yay! No more about that evil man," said Poseidon. "I was tired of hearing about that ugly person."

 **Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking and more importantly, his '78 Camaro for the whole weekend.  
**

 **"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

"Like he'd be the one driving," said Hazel and Reyna together. "He's twelve."

 **Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve.**

Everyone stared at them weirdly.

 **But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

 **Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain.**

 **As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe.**

 **The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon.**

"Wow, your son is very powerful, Uncle Poseidon," said Hephaestus.

 **Maybe it was just the wind or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out. I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.  
**

 **Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes.**

 **There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets,**

Athena & Annabeth shuddered and Annabeth said, "I hope you cleaned it out before I went there."

"I did."

 **and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in. I loved the place. We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer.**

 **She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

"Aww!" cried Aphrodite and Freya together.

"That so cute!" shrieked Freya.

 **As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

"She so pretty!" cried Aphrodite.

 **We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine.**

"Does that include de-spidering the cabin?" asked Athena.

 **We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"What's with the blue food?" asked Zeus. "Blue is my color."

 **I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"Oh."

 **See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue.**

 **She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop.**

 **This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano-was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"She was never 'suckered'" said Percy angrily. The floor started to shake again.

"Percy, calm down," said Piper soothing, charmspeak in her voice. Percy calmed down and put his arm around Annabeth.

 **When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash.**

Everyone glared at Zeus and he squirmed under their gazes.

"What?!"

 **She told me about the books she wanted to write someday when she had enough money to quit the candy shop. Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk, my father.  
**

 **Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

 **"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

Everyone looked at Percy and Poseidon.

"They do look alike said," Hazel.

 **Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

" **I am,"**

 **I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"You have other talents," said all the Greek demigods.

"Like sword fighting," said Leo.

"Awesome water powers," said Nico.

 **"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

 **She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

 **"But... he knew me as a baby."**

 **"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

 **I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile. I had always assumed he knew me as a baby.**

This time Zeus glared at Poseidon.

 **My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me …**

 **I felt angry at my father.**

Poseidon sighed and Demeter comforted him "He doesn't feel that anymore."

 **Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom.**

" I wanted to" said Poseidon sadly. **  
**

All the gods gasped.

 **He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

 **"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

 **She pulled a marshmallow from the fire. "I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

 **"Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out. My mom's eyes welled with tears.**

" **Percy!" scolded all the girls. "Don't say that!"**

 **She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away." Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

 **"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

" **You say that's a bad thing," said Reyna and Alex. Both of them were sad that's what Percy thought.**

 **"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

 **"Safe from what?"**

"Monsters," said Jason.

 **She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

 **During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

"Cyclopes," said Annabeth matter of factly.

 **Before that a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"Wow!" said Demeter. "He's like Heracles."

Jason and Piper had been smiling and laughing at a joke Leo had told them but as the mention of Heracles the smiles vanished and Jason said: "He's nothing like Heracles."

 **In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

 **I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword.**

 **But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"Foolish boy."

 **"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake.**

"Who's they?" asked Sam.

"Chiron and Grover probably."

 **But there's only one other option, Percy the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

 **"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

 **"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp." My head was spinning. Why would my dad who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born to talk to my mom about a summer camp?  
**

 **And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

"Because she did want to part with you," said Jack.

Wow, Jack, you actually sounded smart, said Magnus.

"Hey! **"**

 **"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying goodbye to you for good."**

 **"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..." She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

 **That night I had a vivid dream. It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse, and a golden eagle,  
**

"Poseidon and Zeus," said Hades, not surprised that his two brothers were fighting.

 **were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons.**

 **The horse reared up and kicked at the eagle's wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.  
**

"Who is that?" asked Freya.

"Kronos," said Percy and Annabeth darkly **.**

 **I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion**

 **. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes,**

"HA! I won," cheered Zeus jumped up and did a little dance. Hermes was filming the whole thing.

 **and I screamed, No! I woke with a start. Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery. With the next thunderclap, my mom woke.**

 **She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane." I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten.**

 **Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

"Wow, you two are really mad," said Artemis.

 **Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door. My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

 **Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"Goat boy makes a comeback," cried the Stolls happily.

 **"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?" My mother looked at me in terror not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

 **"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?" I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

 **"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled.**

"Nice curse," said Thalia.

 **"It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?" I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly.**

 **I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night.**

 **Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...**

 **My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

 **I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.  
**

 **She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

 **Grover ran for the Camaro but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me.**

 **I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked. Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.  
**

"Finished!" I said.

Nico and Percy yawned. Poseidon and Hades noticed.

"Bedtime," said Hades.

"Aww, man," said Nico.

* * *

 **Wow, 23 pages long. Sorry I was late in updating. Thanks for reading this. And please review, it makes me a happy camper.**


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